A child curiously looks at the camera as another tends to a bitter bean (yongchak) that is being roasted over a fire for an afternoon snack at one of the relief camps in Santipur. (Morung Photo)
Displaced Rengmas yearn for home yet apprehensive
The thought of returning home is just as challenging, as was leaving home, for the displaced Rengmas of Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council. Dislodged from the comfort of home, despair and apprehension hangs in the air, as the 1300-plus residents struggle to cope with life in the confined environment of relief camps. Yearning to return home, but insecure, their predicament could at best be summed up by the proverb ‘caught between a rock and a hard place’.
The thought of returning home is just as challenging, as was leaving home, for the displaced Rengmas of Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council. Dislodged from the comfort of home, despair and apprehension hangs in the air, as the 1300-plus residents struggle to cope with life in the confined environment of relief camps. Yearning to return home, but insecure, their predicament could at best be summed up by the proverb ‘caught between a rock and a hard place’.
Threat to life is not the only concern confronting the men and women once they return home. Feeding the children, the old and the frail is just as much problematic and no less daunting. With a new academic year starting, admitting children to school is yet another immediate concern for the adults.
Problems do not end here. The structures acting as relief camps are educational establishments, well past the dateline for resumption of classes after the winter break. The annual HSLC and HSSLC final exams are round the corner, set to begin by the second week of February. Two of the relief camps are exam centres.
“Our biggest concern now is our children (and school admission),” commented a despondent young father sheltered in one of the four relief camps at Santipur. The camps have near about 300 school-going children. Keeping the home fire burning also pricks his thoughts. “We escaped empty-handed, will be compelled to return empty-handed... Even if we go back, we have nothing to eat,” said the father of two. An unaccounted number of the displaced had to flee, leaving their paddy mid-harvest. The crops, which were not burned, either became food for wild animals or are going bad, left exposed to the elements.
For Binale, a mother of six, a bleak year ahead awaits her. Coupled with the task of sending five children to school, her family will have an empty barn this year. Paddy was their only source of income. “The paddy we got last season is now gone,” said the woman from Lolashangyu, who looked well beyond her age. Her husband, she said, returned to the village the day before in the hope of salvaging whatever could be of use. Despite, “I want this to be over with and return home,” Binale said.
Government aid in the form of Rs. 20,000 in cash and roofing material was announced for every family whose houses were ‘fully damaged’, while Rs. 20,000 was the package for ‘partially damaged’ houses. For the ones whose houses were not destroyed, no rehabilitation package has been announced yet. A majority of the displaced depend on paddy for their livelihood. Scores of households, like Binale’s and the young father of two, have lost a year’s worth of sustenance.
The Government of Assam has so far identified 101 families, whose houses were either razed or partially burned. The administrative head of Bokajan sub-division said on January 31 that it will be a week before the rehabilitation package is doled out. The SDO further said that camps will be set up at Phentsero (Phancherop) and Jongpha to act as temporary shelters during the rebuilding period. As regards the resumption of schools, the SDO said that officials have been deployed to identify buildings, where the displaced will be relocated, allowing the schools to reopen.
